McCarron’s Advice Certainly Not Golden
Ten days to go until we get the Chargers, the Mission Bay Shrimp and the Spanos Goofs at the Home Depot Center, 18 more wasted days for Bogey Boy to fix the fourth-place-bound Dodgers, and 27 days until I walk down the aisle and toss the daughter over to the Grocery Store Bagger.
I just want you to know why I might be a little cranky at times during the next month, and why I won’t be writing my usual number of feel-good columns.
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I’D LIKE to continue the tradition of making people rich, though, by narrowing the Hollywood Park Gold Cup field. In the past it has been pretty easy -- just identify the horse that jockey Chris McCarron’s riding, and don’t bet it to win.
McCarron won every other kind of big race during his Hall of Fame career, but was something like 0 for 19 in the Gold Cup, and I remember the look on the poor horse’s face in the paddock a few years ago when he realized McCarron would be getting on his back for the Gold Cup.
Some folks were worried two years ago when McCarron’s horse, Futural, crossed the finish line first in the Gold Cup. But the stewards immediately took another look at the race, because everyone knew McCarron couldn’t win the Gold Cup, and so they disqualified his horse and placed it third -- figuring that’s about as good as a McCarron horse should do in that race.
McCarron retired as a losing Gold Cup jockey, and is now some kind of big shot at Santa Anita. He also has been working on the movie, “Seabiscuit,” which comes out later this month, and of course his acting assignment in that flick was to ride War Admiral, and lose to Seabiscuit. I’m told he was a natural.
I called McCarron to have him pick a winner in today’s Gold Cup, he said, “Harlan’s Holiday,” and so you can draw a line through Harlan’s Holiday.
He picked Rodion as a longshot, I laughed, so he went with Kudos. I asked if he’d wait a minute while I drew Xs through Rodion and Kudos. “Make it Golden Ticket because he’s got the leading rider [Patrick Valenzuela],” he said.
For those keeping track at home, McCarron picked four of the seven horses in the race to win -- thereby making four horses very sad at this time.
Seabiscuit won the first-ever Gold Cup 65 years ago with George Woolf on his back. Woolf, portrayed in the movie by Gary Stevens, went on to win the first three Gold Cup races -- giving him three more victories than McCarron.
Woolf is no longer living, but I thought to prove my point that even a dead man could do better in the Gold Cup than McCarron, I asked Stevens, who has won three Gold Cups -- giving him three more wins than McCarron -- to continue playing the part of Woolf, and pick the winner.
“I like the fact it bugs McCarron he can’t win this race,” said Woolf via Stevens. “My pick is Stevens to win on Piensa Sonando. He’s a good rider.”
McCarron scoffed, so I asked McCarron how he might do riding against Woolf today. “Great,” McCarron said, “since he’d be about 90 now.”
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THE MORNING-line favorite in the Gold Cup is Congaree, a horse that Stevens rode before getting the boot.
“When a movie is not good and the director has no one to blame, they blame it on the cook,” Stevens said. “Well, I got the blame in the last race with Congaree, and whether it was the owner or trainer Bob Baffert, I’m happy where I am. And I’m happy I’m not on Congaree. If Congaree wins, I’ll be very surprised.”
McCarron, of course, didn’t pick Congaree, so most people wouldn’t be surprised it he won. He didn’t mention Western Pride, improving that horse’s chances. He also didn’t pick Stevens and his horse. “Stevens has no shot,” said McCarron.
So what did we learn from McCarron this year? Take Stevens and Piensa Sonando to win the Gold Cup.
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LAFFIT PINCAY JR., arguably the finest athlete to ever compete in Los Angeles, will be honored today at Hollywood Park.
“Laffit is the most dedicated athlete who ever lived,” McCarron said. “He rode when he was hurt, sick, distraught emotionally.... He just always showed up for work. For years I tried to figure him out, so I could adopt some of that personality and capitalize on it. I think it was his love of winning -- it never became mundane to him.”
Pincay rode the last two winners in the Gold Cup -- nine all together, including his first in 1970. By the way, that’s nine more than McCarron.
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DENNIS JOHNSON deserved better. Most folks do who come and go to the Clippers. The same can be said for Alvin Gentry. And most likely Mike Dunleavy.
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NOTHING WRONG with assembling a Hall of Fame basketball team, and to make it fair I’d urge the Lakers to play 4-on-5. Only one concern here: The Lakers haven’t given it their all during the regular season -- saving themselves for the playoffs. That’s very frustrating and shortchanges the fans.
Now they’ve acquired older players who are coming here only for the opportunity to excel in the playoffs. Karl Malone and Gary Payton had to play hard every night to give their former teams a chance to make the playoffs, but will they now fall prey to the same pace-yourself Laker attack?
This team should have the best record at the midway point, thereby sending Phil Jackson off to coach in the All-Star game. Sorry, Jeanie, no reason to fire up the hot tub.
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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Victor Palomarez:
“Looking at the ridiculously low batting averages of the current Dodger lineup, I found myself pining for the offensive punch of F.P. Santangelo.”
Maybe that’s the move Dan Evans has been waiting to make.
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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.